Soil erosion and sediment delivery in a mountain catchment under scenarios of land use change using a spatially distributed numerical model

  1. Alatorre, L.C. 2
  2. Beguería, S. 3
  3. Lana-Renault, N. 1
  4. Navas, A. 3
  5. García-Ruiz, J.M. 4
  1. 1 Universidad de La Rioja
    info

    Universidad de La Rioja

    Logroño, España

    ROR https://ror.org/0553yr311

  2. 2 Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez
    info

    Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez

    Ciudad Juárez, México

    ROR https://ror.org/05fj8cf83

  3. 3 Estación Experimental de Aula Dei
    info

    Estación Experimental de Aula Dei

    Zaragoza, España

    ROR https://ror.org/056a37x91

  4. 4 Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología
    info

    Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología

    Zaragoza, España

    ROR https://ror.org/039ssy097

Revista:
Hydrology and Earth System Sciences

ISSN: 1027-5606

Año de publicación: 2012

Volumen: 16

Número: 5

Páginas: 1321-1334

Tipo: Artículo

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DOI: 10.5194/HESS-16-1321-2012 SCOPUS: 2-s2.0-84860800557 WoS: WOS:000304049700005 GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openAcceso abierto editor

Otras publicaciones en: Hydrology and Earth System Sciences

Repositorio institucional: lock_openAcceso abierto Editor

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Resumen

Soil erosion and sediment yield are strongly affected by land use/land cover (LULC). Spatially distributed erosion models are of great interest to assess the expected effect of LULC changes on soil erosion and sediment yield. However, they can only be applied if spatially distributed data is available for their calibration. In this study the soil erosion and sediment delivery model WATEM/SEDEM was applied to a small (2.84 km 2) experimental catchment in the Central Spanish Pyrenees. Model calibration was performed based on a dataset of soil redistribution rates derived from point 137Cs inventories, allowing capture differences per land use in the main model parameters. Model calibration showed a good convergence to a global optimum in the parameter space, which was not possible to attain if only external (not spatially distributed) sediment yield data were available. Validation of the model results against seven years of recorded sediment yield at the catchment outlet was satisfactory. Two LULC scenarios were then modeled to reproduce land use at the beginning of the twentieth century and a hypothetic future scenario, and to compare the simulation results to the current LULC situation. The results show a reduction of about one order of magnitude in gross erosion (3180 to 350 Mg yr -1) and sediment delivery (11.2 to 1.2 Mg yr -1 ha -1) during the last decades as a result of the abandonment of traditional land uses (mostly agriculture) and subsequent vegetation recolonization. The simulation also allowed assessing differences in the sediment sources and sinks within the catchment. © Author(s) 2012.